Dangerous Catch (Pd 3)
“Our massive demands on the ocean’s bounty impacts life far beyond the shoreline: bushmeat hunting is on the rise in Ghana while in Namibia; fishing grounds struggle to recover as putrid fumes explode from the ocean depths and poison the waters; and radical new fish farms are sprouting up from Puerto Rico to Canada. Across the globe, all life is feeling the effects of overfishing. Can we protect fish in time to safeguard the ocean, life on land and ultimately ourselves? Find out how we all can make a difference.”

Group 3: Farmed and Dangerous
· What are some pros and cons of fish farming or aquaculture?
· What are the advantages to adding kelp and mussels to salmon farms that Chopin and Robinson introduced to farms in Canada?
· Describe the offshore aquaculture that Brian O’Hanlon is doing in Puerto Rico.
· What advantages are there to offshore aquaculture?
· What are some of the problems with raising carnivorous fish, and how do you fix those problems?
· What was one of the problems with shrimp farming that was discussed in the video?



Farmed and Dangerous


Summary:
The video we had watched had many key points and a lot of information which contained many important ideas to keep our habitat both clean and happy. Every day, we waste and hurt the planet in various ways. The video explained this to us and gave us things to think about and showed many examples of real life events. In the beginning of the video, Chopin and Robinson introduced adding kelp and mussels to Canadafish farms. This helped clean the water and can be sold for a very large profit. Most of the farming in aquaculture mostly had good outcomes even though it did have some minor problems. The video also showed many different ways of raising fish along with their advantages and disadvantages for raising the breeds of different types of fish that eat different things. The video also talked about the problems with shrimp farming which can destroy the Mangrove Tree’s ecosystem.

1) I think the good thing about fish aquaculture is that it keeps everything balanced so fish don’t overpopulate or wipe out a species of fish or plants depending on what they eat. Sometimes we may take too many of a species of plants or fish which depletes their predator’s amount of prey, killing the starving predators. Another con is when people are fishing, they usually take all the healthy fish, leaving the unhealthy ones to the rest of the predators. The unhealthy species of fish or plants could then spread numerous amounts of diseases, which causes many types of other organisms to become ill, unhealthy, or dead.
A con to fish farming is that it is monoculture farming. It wipes out other species and can be very messy to the ecosystem. Chopin and Robinson remedied this by adding kelp and mussels which are natural ways to clean up the waste created by raising salmon on a "farm".
2) Some cases when they farm animals and plants such as mussels and kelp, these organisms help clear the water. They can also be sold for profit. The kelp and mussels added to the salmon farms had a very positive impact because they were sold as food and brought in a lot of money, economically.

3) In Puerto Rico, Brian O’Hanlon is doing something totally different and extraordinary in aquaculture. Brian has made an aqua pod in the middle ocean. The aqua pod is a space age sphere in open ocean to farm various fish species.

4) Some advantages to offshore aquaculture are that the fish don’t get the water bugs that attach to the fish’s body and will kill the fish. The fish would then not be sold for product because of these bugs. Also, the currents in the ocean help circulate and move the oxygen around in the sphere, making the water healthier for the organisms.

5) When raising carnivorous fish, you may run into problems. They cost more because of their diet. Cannibalism may come into play with some species and requires much more supplies to keep the species alive. Some ways we can help these problems are by not raising and breading as many carnivorous fish. Their population may get overpopulated due to aquaculture farming. This can also affect the prey’s species in a negative way.

6) One problem that they discussed with shrimp farming in the video was that the shrimp farming are destroying the Mangrove Tree’s ecosystem which totally could have wiped out the whole Mangrove Tree’s environment.
Nice Job 75/75